DIGGER, Stay In The Fraking Hole, Here In Turn Two

Tight In Turn 2 is kicking it back in gear. It may not be the weekly thing we had last year, but when something is burning our butts, it's gonna show up here! Today, I'm dragging Digger over the coals, because frankly, I'm insulted by FOX if they think I like this crap. It's not as bad as say, ABC heading off to America's Funniest Videos with just a few laps to go, but if they keep hitting me up with this cartoon puke, it will soon overtake that infamous moment in television history.

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Let's hit Turn Two now, shall we?:

FOX is interesting. The group that telecasts the sporting events likes animated characters to boost up their sporting events. When FOX took over Soccer, a soccer fan said the telecast got all glitzed up and it hasn't been the same since.

Now with Digger seeming to get more air time, I am forced to suffer through these bits of cartoon FOX is shoving down our throats. Why? It's one thing when FOX has their football robot in the lower left corner. That's fine. It doesn't get out there and dance around on screen during the plays or when someone gets hurt. Digger, on the other hand tends to show up during racing scenes and accidents when they make Digger do cute things while race cars are wrecking. Digger trivializes the moment and the announcers have to jump in on the bandwagon and boost the gopher. Gads, I hope they're getting hazard pay, or stupid pay or whatever pay for doing that extra bit.

Digger is the name of the damn camera under the track. It has no purpose, no story, no redeeming feature or a place in this sports telecast except to show some pretty neat undercarriage shots when the cars do get that low. I'll give it that.

But what has me wondering is if FOX is worried about their ratings.

We have a ton more coverage of Digger. Yet from what I can tell, not a lot of people really like it. In fact I'm 2 for 2 in changing my channel to the Sci-Fi Channel and watching that rather than the rest of the pre-race show. Cripes, The Sci-Fi Channel should thank FOX. Digger makes them look good.

Now I've said this before, from both angles: FOX Looks like they're adding glitzy cute girls to their promo shots at the front of the show in mock victory lap scenes. I've never found it to be a good thing when a show adds a hottie to the cast. It usually means something bad is happening with the ratings. On the flip side, I am not technically complaining about having to see the girls on my TV screen.

Back on Track:

Personally, I'd like to see the actual tech behind the Digger 'Cam. If it's what I suspect it to be, it can be pretty cool. But FOX, leave us alone. Put your cheap Caddyshack mimic on the Cartoon Network and let us watch NASCAR, for real. If we need cartoon violence, we'll just replay Jimmy Spencer popping Kurt Busch in his car. OR watch wrestling on the Sci-Fi Channel.



Charlie from On Pit Row Has this to say about the issue:

I had fun during the race telecast from Auto Club Speedway, watching the race, while monitoring things on Twitter. There were a ton of negative - and often humorous - Tweets about Digger. I didn't see much positive. In fact, I don't remember anything pro-gopher.

I wonder if the producer of Fox' NASCAR broadcast was around, or is a disiple of, the original Tracy Ullmann Show. That's where, many moons ago, a little annimated short called the Simpsons got it's start. Maybe Digger will move on to bigger and better things. We can hope, at least.

Charlie Turner

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Since Charlie was so nice to participate here, we chatted a little bit over on his site about Dale Earnhardt Jr and if he's in trouble already, this early in the season. See what we have to say over on On Pit Row.

Matt Kenseth's Rain Win and What I Thought About The Show

Last night I woke up with the flu. I had been feeling not quite right so I got up at around 4 am. I tuned into the Daytona Nationwide race repeat again and then from about 5 a.m. on SPEED had nothing but Daytona coverage.

I was fine with that. I'm laid out on the couch passing out here and there. I finally got to the FOX pre-race show and it was OK... nothing new.. well, not too much new.

They're using the same theme song from last year that annoyed my wife a lot. But I have to wonder if they're worried about their TV ratings.

Did you notice the mock victory lane celebrations in the show opening and the driver is surrounded by four really nice looking young girls in tight tee-shirts and short shorts? It's getting cheap about the lot... though I am not complaining.

Then there was the line that DW tossed out there about Chris Myers:

Chris is from Hollywood Fl., lives in Hollywood, CA; works in the Hollywood Hotel and works with Hollywood Hammond.

I bet he thought he was funny. I didn't. Someone said that exact thing on SIRIUS Satellite Radio a few weeks ago. Bad move DW... if you're using writers, they need to be fired. If you did that, you need writers.

But when they got to the animated schtick of Digger and friends, I lost it. They wasted my time with that stupidity and I just left the show.

I like the premise that they named the techonology they use to film from under the track surface as Digger. Cute. But giving it a comic book and cartoon that we have to suffer through just put me over the edge. I left and didn't come back until the green flag. Now maybe my patience is a little thin because I'm sick but I've had it with Digger. Cute, but intolerable. Don't shove that crap down my throat. Let me go find it for myself. UPDATE: See What The Digger Camera Looks Like.

As I wrap up this article, they're under a rain delay with 48 laps to go. If anyone has looked at weather.com and seen the radar, they've got at least an hour of rain and it looks heavy at times. Give it up folks. It looks like Matt Kenseth has this one in the bag. The wet paper bag.

Ah, just as I finished that paragraph, the race was called. There is some sense. Now I don't have to sit around in the rain delay.

I hate a non-racing win, but it is what it is. Right gang?